


Become the Moon and Change the Tides

by Trinz



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Werecreatures, Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Manipulation, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, No child death, but children will get hurt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:02:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23218189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trinz/pseuds/Trinz
Summary: Karma comes for William Afton in the form of a rabbit and gives him a very big, very furry situation that's as much his problem as it is everyone around him's.
Relationships: William Afton | Dave Miller & Henry Emily
Comments: 1
Kudos: 35





	Become the Moon and Change the Tides

**Author's Note:**

> This were!au was inspired by rebellovesrobots on tumblr, I highly suggest looking up their were!au art.

Henry felt the eyes of his two children sitting at the breakfast table on him as he moved to answer the ringing house phone. The only person he could imagine calling him at seven in the morning was the school principal telling him that school was cancelled for the day for some reason or another, and the kids were thinking the same thing.

“Henry Emily speaking.” He said as soon as he picked the phone up.

“Mr. Emily?” Michael’s voice filtered through it, sounding almost scared. “It’s me, Michael.”

Henry frowned immediately. “What do you need, Michael?”

“Father is missing.” The kid’s breath wavered on the other side of the phone.

“How?” Henry asked quietly even while his heart rate jumped.

“I- uh- Father often goes on walks during the day and he’s usually back before sundown, but yesterday I didn’t see him come back. I made the others mac and cheese and we went to bed; I thought I’d see him in the morning but he isn’t here. I- I went into his room and his workshop to look for him but he’s just gone.”

Henry tried to move away from the kitchen but the phone’s cable tied him to the kitchen’s column. “Have you called Clay or anyone else?”

“No- I started freaking out and called you.”

“Okay, Michael, the school bus should be at your house soon, get your siblings and yourself to school and I’ll handle it from here. When school’s over ride the bus back to my house with Sammy and Charlie. Everything is going to be fine.” Henry's calm voice betrayed the dread growing in his gut.

No response came from the phone and Henry was about to ask if Michael was still there when the boy finally spoke again.

"Yeah, got it."

"Good, I'm going to need to hang up to call Clay, alright?"

"Yup… bye, Mr. Emily."

"Bye, Michael."

Henry hung up the phone and paused as he let his thoughts run rampant for just a moment. William… missing overnight after going on a walk, for a second Henry's traitorous mind imagined him dead on the forest floor, having been mauled by a bear or a cougar or some other equally bloodthirsty animal. He shook the thought from his head and moved back into the kitchen to check on the twins.

They stared up at him, clearly having paused eating in an attempt to overhear his conversation on the phone. Henry smiled softly at them.

"The Afton kids are going to be coming home with you on the bus today."

Immediately Sammy and Charlie lit up like Christmas trees.

"Chris, too?" Sammy asked.

His children unabashedly played favorites with William's; Chris, being just a year older than them was their closest friend. Elizabeth bonded with Charlie over being the only two girls around but beyond that their relationship boiled down to Lizzie ordering Charlie around during playtime. And Michael, who was almost twice their age at 15 and in the middle of some sort of 'I'm too cool for younger kids' phase only interacted with them when William was paying him an allowance to babysit while Henry and William worked.

"Yes, Chris, Lizzie, and Mike will be coming." Henry assured them.

"Yay!" They both cheered.

"Alright, finish eating or else you'll be shovelling cereal down while you're running to the bus."

Charlie giggled and they both resumed eating.

Henry wandered back towards the phone, leaving his half eaten plate of eggs to inevitably be taken by Sammy. A quick glance at the wall clock told him that the bus had probably already stopped by the Afton house and was headed his way- he and William lived a ways out of town and as such were the first two stops for the school bus every day.

“Can you guys get on the bus yourself?”

Their eyes widened and they nodded furiously at him, excited about their brand new responsibility.

“Good, I need to make a call, have a good day at school.”

The twins waved at him happily and Henry responded with a smile before he went back to the phone and hastily punched in a number.

"Hello? I'd like to report a missing person…"

~~~~~

Three days passed before Henry got any information on the hunt for William. By the third day, Friday, the Afton kids refused to go to school, and instead stayed at Henry's, pretending to watch TV as they listened for the house phone. When it finally did ring all three of them jumped and Lizzie almost bolted off the couch and rushed the phone.

Henry answered the phone before she could for him.

"Henry Emily speaking."

"Henry- we found him." Clay's voice didn't immediately set off alarms in Henry's mind and he sighed in relief.

"Thank God."

He nodded at the kids on the couch and all three of them erupted into cheers.

"He wasn't in great shape when we found him so he's been brought to the nearest hospital." Clay informed him.

"Okay, I have to be at home when the twins come back from school, can you or another officer bring William's kids there to see him?"

"I'll have Officer Johnson pick them up."

"Thanks, Clay." Henry hung up the phone and turned back to the kids.

All three of them were staring so intensely at him Henry swore for a moment that they were trying to read his mind.

"They found your father, but he was a little banged up so he's at the hospital right now-"

"What!" Lizzie shouted.

Mike immediately shushed her and she turned to glare at him.

"And, Officer Johnson is going to be picking you guys up as soon as possible to bring you to him." Henry finished before Lizzie retaliated.

"You're not coming with?" Mike asked.

"No, I have to be here when Sammy and Charlie get back, but after that we'll come straight to the hospital."

"When is Officer Johnson coming?" Lizzie asked.

"Soon." Henry assured her.

~~~~~

Upon waking up there were three things William noticed immediately: he was hungry as hell, his left eye stung, and there was something heavy leaning against him. William opened his eyes to see if he could remedy these and instantly the pain over his eye increased. He almost snapped his eyes shut again when he realized what was leaning against him.

Chris lay on his hospital bed curled into a ball and leaning heavily against him. William slowly lifted a hand and rested it on Chris' shoulder. His touch instantly alerted Chris who jolted awake and uncurled in order to look at him.

"Dad!" He shouted and threw his arms around his neck.

Out of the corner of William's eye Michael looked up from a comic book in his hands.

"Father!"

William returned Chris' hug and smiled at Mike. Scattered memories only filled him with questions but he kept his mouth shut for their benefit.

"Mr. Afton."

William startled at the sound of Sammy's voice on his left and turned to look at him in shock.

Sammy giggled and pointed at his face. "You look like Foxy."

"What?"

Mike frowned and Chris pulled away, more subdued than before. They looked at him but didn't quite meet his eye and for a moment William stared back confused, until it hit him.

He reached up to his left eye and carefully pressed a finger against the white bandage there and flinched as the stinging pain increased.

"Oh."

"Do you have to make Spring Foxy now?" Chris asked quietly.

"It's the same eye." Mike pointed out.

William let out a sharp laugh before he caught himself. "What? I'm not going to- where's Henry and the girls?"

"They went to get you soup, the doctors said you hadn't eaten in three days." Mike said.

"Did they mention when I can leave?" William asked.

"Today, I think." He shrugged.

"Alright, lug, get off." William gently urged Chris off his bed.

His youngest son groaned as he slid off the bed and sulkily made his way to an empty chair. Suddenly, something Michael had said clicked in his mind: three days. Alarm filled his mind but William quickly schooled his expression and was suddenly faced with the sudden lapse in the conversation.

A knock on the door startled all of them and before anyone could answer the hospital door opened to reveal Henry and Charlie standing behind Lizzie as she pushed it open.

"Daddy!" Lizzie shouted immediately and raced to his bedside, almost tripping over Chris' shoes in the process.

Like Chris she threw her arms around him and William embraced her, but he looked up and met Henry's eyes. His gaze was full of questions, and William had some of his own, but those would have to wait until the kids weren't in the room.

"I brought soup." Henry lifted a takeout bag to show William.

"Thanks." William patted Lizzie's back before he urged her to get off the bed.

"The doctors said you probably couldn't handle anything too solid so it's just tomato." He explained as he placed the bag where Lizzie and Chris had sat.

"Tomato soup sounds divine." William admitted as he tore the bag open. "Mike said three days- is it Friday now?"

"Yes," Henry responded, "do you not remember?"

"No." William lied easily as he busied himself with the soup. "I mean, I remember what happened to my eye, but everything after that is practically gone."

"What… did happen to your eye?" Mike asked hesitantly.

"I found an injured rabbit on my walk," another lie, but with just enough truth to hold up under scrutiny. "And when I knelt down to see if I could help it it scratched me. I tried to walk back home… but I guess I didn't make it."

"Didn't make it?" Henry scoffed. "They found you this morning."

William paused, silently mulling over the nonsensical memories he did still have of the last three days.

"What did the doctor say about my eye?" He deflected Henry's statement with ease.

"Well, you're not going to be Foxy forever." Henry attempted to shoot him a smile following his joke. "The injury is just on your eyelid and around your eye, though they said it most likely will scar because it remained untreated so long. Your doctor said that you're lucky that it never got infected, it could be worse, but it's minor enough that you can take the eyepatch off in a couple days."

William sighed in relief and turned his attention back to his cooling soup. "Thanks, Henry. Now, how can I work on getting myself out of here?"

~~~~~

Several hours later they all found themselves at William's house. He had been cleared by the hospital to go home and was deemed fit enough to take care of his children by himself.

Exhaustion hit William as soon as he stepped through the doorway and he immediately began trudging towards his workshop.

Henry huffed as soon as he realized where William was headed. "Will, I can't let you work, you don't even have depth perception."

"Come and stop me, then." William grumbled.

Henry sighed and watched William's kids make their way to their rooms, with Sammy and Charlie right behind Chris.

"Alright, we need to discuss tomorrow's events, anyway."

Ignoring Henry William continued down the stairs to his workshop. Immediately upon reaching the bottom of the stairwell a familiar voice greeted him.

"Hello, Michael." Wolfgang greeted from his faux stage facing the entrance.

William turned and smiled at the lupine animatronic. Wolfgang was, unfortunately, a reject from Freddy's band, when Henry and William were mapping out the layout of the new location that was opening the next day they realized that they didn't have room for a stage big enough for four animatronics. One of them was going to need to be cut out, and at first their choice was going to be Chica, but Elizabeth threw a fit at the idea of them removing the only 'girl' animatronic, and eventually convinced Charlie to throw a fit about it as well. Freddy, Bonnie, and Foxy in his Pirate's Cove were non-negotiable so unfortunately Wolfgang and his piano were booted out of the band and now he stood sentry in William's workshop while a twin animatronic sat in Henry's. Even while he wasn't being used on stage they both used their Wolfgangs and their endoskeletons to test everything from animation cycles to audio to new technology.

Very recently they added a new type of facial recognition software, meant to recognize the birthday kid, that was still very much in the beta stage to Wolfgang.

"No, I'm about a foot and a half too tall to be Michael." William chided the wolf.

"Hello, William." Wolfgang corrected after a pause that William attributed to his learning software logging the incorrect identification.

The poor animatronic had a field day every time the twins entered the workshop.

Henry chuckled as he followed William. "Mistook you for Mike again?"

"As per usual."

"Hello, Henry." Wolfgang greeted as soon as he was in sight.

"Hi, Mozart." Henry returned Wolfgang's wave in greeting.

Wolfgang returned to his default position as they both made their way further into the workshop.

William swore aloud as his foot unexpectedly ran into the side of his metal desk. "I thought it was further away."

"Yeah, you're not going to be tinkering today." Henry said, amused, from behind him.

"I just came down here for my journal." William deflected. "And to talk about tomorrow."

"We can't cancel Freddy's opening weekend." Henry said immediately.

"I know." He turned his back to Henry in order to take his journal off his desk. "And I can't show up looking like this, you'll have to open without me. Tell the staff and guests I had an accident and that I'll be there next weekend."

"The kids are still going to want to go."

"Mike and Lizzie are pretty responsible, just have them watch over the other three and they'll be fine." William responded dismissively. "I need a break after these last few days, anyway."

"What the hell happened to you?" Henry's tone caused William to turn back towards him.

"I honestly don't know." He began walking out of the workshop with his journal and pen in hand. "I'm trying not to think about it."

"I worry about you sometimes, Will, especially after Kathleen left."

"Don't." William sighed. "Can you take care of the kids tonight? I need to turn in early."

"Of course." He could hear Henry's frown in his response.

~~~~~

In the safety of his own room William sat at his desk and flipped open his journal to its latest entry- dated three days ago. Immediately he added a new date and started writing- because, despite what he told Henry William did have memories of the last three days. At first glance they were nonsensical, easily dismissed as dreams if they didn’t feel so intimately real, but he couldn’t help but consider them.

In every memory William could hardly recognize his mind as human. The skittish instincts of a prey animal fought against the hunger of a predator at every sound he heard- sending him running on all fours towards it or away from it. He crashed through the forest with all the subtlety of a dog chasing a squirrel trying to hunt down scents of other animals in an attempt to fill his empty stomach.

At noon one day William- or the thing that replaced him- happened upon something between a stream and a river and bent down to take a drink. For a second William caught a glimpse of his reflection and what stared back at him was something he could only describe as an extremely large, yellow, and strangely proportioned jackrabbit. He had to be at least seven and a half feet tall and skinnier than William had ever been, but still covered in sleek muscle.

It only took half an hour to write down his thoughts on the last three days- most of his memories consisted of only a few moments at a time. By the time he was done Henry had already made some sort of supper and was urging the kids to come and eat it. William closed his journal and started making his way downstairs- he’d have to figure out what the hell happened to him some other day.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
